But even those guys are in a precarious position, because they’ve yet to demonstrate that they can afford the cost of music they’re either selling or giving away. And they’re competing with the likes of Apple and Microsoft, which can afford to lose money on this stuff because they think it can help their real businesses.

And you? You definitely can’t afford it, because you have zero scale. So you’re going to burn a ton of money trying to get there.

Quick reminder: Music licensing is crazily complicated in the U.S., and even more so in the rest of the world, since rights deals vary by country. But in general, if you want to get your hands on digital music, you have a few choices:

Pay the music labels and owners stiff fees for “on-demand” rights, like the kind Spotify offers.

Pakman used to run a digital music company himself and, like nearly every single person who leaves digital music, he has vowed to never go back until the licensing climate changes.

“Although we have met many great entrepreneurs with great product ideas, we have resisted investing in digital music largely for one reason — the complications and conditions of the state of music licensing.”

You want to be the one who proves him wrong? Good luck.

*I can’t believe you’re out there, but I keep hearing from the PR firms you’ve hired, so I guess you are.

**Okay. Some people want to hear it. Maybe the musicians’ friends and family, for instance. And maybe even a few more. But if you want one of those billion-dollar valuations, you want to demonstrate you can get scale. And you’re not going to get it without working with the big guys.

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